Senators Toss Sailor A Line

Panel Subpoenas Soviet Who Jumped Ship

November 08, 1985|By Dorothy Collin, Chicago Tribune.

WASHINGTON — In a highly unusual move, the Senate Agriculture Committee issued a subpoena Thursday to Miroslav Medvid, the Soviet sailor who may or may not have tried to defect, requiring him to appear before the panel Tuesday in the capital.

At the instigation of committee Chairman Jesse Helms (R., N.C.), two aides were sent to New Orleans Thursday evening to try to serve Medvid with the subpoena. Medvid is aboard the Soviet ship Marshal Konev, which is docked in the Mississippi River.

Asked how the aides would be able to get aboard to serve the subpoena, Helms said, ``I don`t know.`` But James Lucier, a Helms aide, said copies of the subpoena would be delivered to the U.S. Customs Service.

George Dunlop, a member of the committee`s staff, said Helms had been assured by William von Raab, head of the customs service, that the ship would be prevented from leaving the country until the subpoena was served and acted upon.

Lucier said the committee had the power to issue the subpoena because it has jurisdiciton ``over grain production and marketing.`` The Marshal Konev is a huge grain freighter registered to the Soviet Union.

``The Agriculture Committee feels it important to study conditions under which the grain trade with the Soviets takes place,`` Helms said in a statement.

Also Thursday, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a habeus corpus suit in federal court in New Orleans asking the government to produce Medvid in court or the judge to order the Coast Guard to withhold clearance for the Soviet ship`s departure.

The suit was filed on behalf of Senators Charles Grassley (R., Ia.) and Gordon Humphrey (R., N.H.), Rep. Robert Livingston (R., La.) and two people who say Medvid may be related to them.

The Marshal Konev is loading its cargo and had been expected to leave Friday or Saturday.

Helms` maneuver was the latest in the bizarre case of the Soviet sailor, who twice jumped into the river and was returned to his ship by the Border Patrol. Medvid later told U.S. officials that he wanted to return to the Soviet Union.

Handling of the case has come under increasing criticism from senators and representatives of both parties, but for different reasons.

Conservatives, such as Helms, see an opportunity to embarrass the State Department and thrash the Soviet Union, while ``Democrats like the issue because it`s a great way to embarrass Ronald Reagan,`` a Senate aide said.

Also, the issue of a single Soviet sailor who may have wanted to defect to the U.S. is more understandable than more complicated aspects of U.S.-Soviet relations, such as differences over strategic nuclear weapons policy.

``When you talk about international relations, people don`t understand

`Star Wars,` `` said Sen. Paul Simon (D., Ill.), referring to the administration`s plans for a space-based missile-defense system. ``But they do understand when a Soviet sailor jumps ship and when someone wasn`t doing the kind of job that should have been done.``

One Republican, referring to the upcoming meeting between President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in Geneva, called the sailor issue ``a sideshow to the summit; it`s more exciting than talking about the throw weights of missiles.``

The Agriculture Committee subpoena was issued after two senators threatened to filibuster an effort to have the Senate issue it.

Sen. Charles Mathias (R., Md.), chairman of the Rules Committee, said a Senate subpoena would be ``demeaning to the dignity and reputation of the Senate.``

Also Thursday, a Romanian merchant seaman assigned to a ship docked near Jacksonville, Fla., was granted political asylum in the United States.

Instead of boarding the ship Wednesday, the sailor asked a private security guard for help, and she took him to an Immigration and Naturalization Service office, said agency spokesman Verne Jervis in Washington.

The federal government granted asylum to Stefan Vernea, 38, because he had a ``well-founded fear`` of persecution if he returned to his communist homeland, immigration officials said.

Perry Rivkind, district director of the immigration service in Miami, granted asylum Thursday after receiving ``a positive advisory opinion from the Department of State, which found that Mr. Vernea had established a well-founded fear of persecution,`` said Rivkind`s assistant, George Waldroup. He did not elaborate.